Monday, April 25, 2005

Well, this was a challenge...

Okay, so here was the challenge:



Make a Serenity inspired recipe.

Now here is the catch, it can be no more than 1000 CHARICTERS (including spaces). So without further ado – Now East meets West!



Sichuan style Tofu and Beef -- "Golden Yuan Bao and Mighty Beast"

2 lbs Beef (Pork, Chicken, Goat work) Cut into thin strips.

2 lbs Tofu (Extra Firm), cubed

Broccoli, 2 lbs, preferably the flourettes

Oyster Sauce, 1 8-oz bottle

Olive Oil, ¼ cp

Water, 4 tbsp

Salt pinch

Ginger (Fresh/powdered to taste)

Chili Peppers (Fresh/Dried to taste)

Heat the oil in a wok, till hot. Add tofu a little at a time, turning till golden brown, drain, set aside. Add beef strips and chili peppers to taste. Cook until beef is browned. Drain, set aside. Remove last of oil. Add water to hot wok. Add broccoli and quickly cook. When almost ready add ginger/salt, stir well. Add beef and tofu to broccoli. Add Oyster sauce and heat till bubbling. Serve with rice or by itself. Feeds 2-3, or Jane for one meal.

We make it here at home with the various "Mighty Beasts" and it never fails to please and totally satisfy. I recommend Jasmine rice. This is my own recipe so give it a try!



Trust me, it is /real/ good!



Till next time,

Be mindful and awake.

Sunday, April 3, 2005

A little rant.

All right, I have to admit it: I am sick. I have some sort of cold and it sucks.



Now what I want to know is how do I cure this thing? To me it seems there should be some sort of cure to the common cold. I mean, we can make bombs that can kill millions of people, level cities, and lay waste to entire countries; yet, we cannot cure the common cold? This is ridiculous!



To illustrate this point I did a little research nd found this quote from the National Institute of Health:



“There is no cure for the common cold, but you can get relief from your cold symptoms by…”



(http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/cold.htm)



Ah Ha! Now follow along with me here and see if you can make the same mental jumps I did. We have so far cured Small Pox, German Measles, Polio, and Mumps. None of which are simple achievements. Why did we cure them? Simple, there is no profit in these diseases for the pharmaceutical companies. You get them once, ever. Now the common cold reoccurs, in infinite variety. Just look at your local grocery store or pharmacy (that’s the chemist for my UK readers). They have shelf after shelf of things to treat the symptoms of a cold, yet not one cure. You will see things listed on the labels as “Cold Remedies”. They lie, just read the fine print on the back of most of them. The even say that “The F.D.A. has not evaluated these statements as to their effectiveness.” In other words, “Yea, we lied, but look here, we are not liable cause we said we lied…we call it marketing.” One of the most common treatments for the symptoms of the common cold is a chemical known as Dextramathorphan Hydrogen Bromide. It is the main ingredient in things like Nyquil and Robitussen DM. It is also a major hallucinogen. So, here you go- they stone you our so you don’t care your sick. Take enough and you may even believe your getting better. Most likely you will also believe that the government has your best interests in mind, they will never lie to you and that the giant space ants in charge are really nice guys. Nyquil, -that sniffling, sneezing, how the hell did I wake up under the kitchen table medicine.



Furthering my search shows there is little funding available to research the common cold’s common cure. So here we feed into the idea there is no money in curing it, only making they symptoms go away.



Myself, I think they could combine research. Put the guys who build nukes on the case. I bet within a year we have a cure. Of course that pill would make you glow like the sun for 1/20 of a second and break wind at 250 miles per hour plus that could knock down buildings and set goats on fire at 3 miles. But what the hell, least you couldn’t be sniffling anymore!



Till next time,

Be mindful and awake